The Power of Six
by Katriona
Summary: AU. Six cousins discover their magical heritage and a destiny greater than even that of the Charmed Ones. *Please R&R*
1. Default Chapter

The Power of Six  
  
Summary: AU, fic. Six cousins, Carolyn (Prue's daughter), Mark (Piper's son), Camille, Julianne (Piper's daughters), Greggory (Phoebe's son), and Khrystalia (Paige's daughter) discover their magical heritage, ten years after Piper, Phoebe, and Paige's deaths. Carolyn was a baby when Prue died, and was raised by Piper, Phoebe, and Paige, hence the AU. They find the Book of Shadows and everything that goes with it - the power, and the responsibilty. Can they handle it?  
  
Disclaimer: All the Charmed characters belong to Spelling, but Carri, Cammie, Julie, Mark, Greg, and Khrys are mine.  
  
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"Carri? Yo, Carri." 26-year-old Mark Wyatt called to his cousin. He waved a hand in front of her face, trying to get her attention.  
  
28-year-old Carolyn Halliwell gasped and jerked suddenly, as if coming out of a trance. She smiled at her cousin, as if just noticing he was there. "Oh, hi Mark. Sorry, you were saying?"  
  
"I was saying, what do you think we should do for the girls' birthday?"  
  
"Oh." Carolyn thought for a moment. "Something special. It is their Sweet Sixteen, after all." Mark's twin sisters, Camille and Julianne, were turning 16 in a few weeks.  
  
"You want to close the club for a night?" Mark suggested.  
  
"Sure," Carolyn agreed slowly. 'We can afford to lose the income for one night,' she thought, 'especially since it's a Wednesday.' Carolyn had inherited the popular nightclub P3 from her Aunt Piper about a decade ago. Carri had been young, just out of high school, but she managed it well. Of course, she'd had help. She had hired Daniel, a kind, older man, to be the manager. He was still working there, but once Carri had turned 21 and legally able to deal with the more hands-on aspects of club ownership - such as ordering and selling alchohol - his job had become increasingly trivial. Now, he mostly did odd jobs around the club - fixing things, helping Carolyn with the paperwork, filling in whenever an employee called out sick. Over the years, he'd become like a father to Carri and her cousins.  
  
Carolyn blinked hard, realizing she'd just zoned out again. Thankfully, Mark didn't seem to notice. "Hey, Mark, do we have any coffee?"  
  
He nodded. "Daniel made some, it's in the office."  
  
She left and returned with two mugs of coffee, one with cream and sugar, one without. She set the mug without down in front of her cousin, and wrinkled her nose as he took he sip. "I don't know how you can drink your coffee black." she remarked, then made a face as he joyfully drank some more.  
  
"Mark, you aren't teasing Carri again, are you?" came a preteen girl's mock-stern voice. Mark and Carolyn looked up to see their youngest cousin, 11-year-old Khrystalia Matthews-Belland.  
  
"Khrys, when are you going to learn?" Mark asked. "I'm always teasing Carri!"  
  
Carolyn smiled and nodded her agreement. Aside from being her best friend, Mark was her biggest antagonist. The two of them were constantly at each other's throats, driving each other crazy with practical jokes and verbal sparring matches.  
  
"How was school, Khrys?" Carri asked her baby cousin.  
  
Khrystalia shrugged, hopping up on the bar stool across from her cousins. "The usual."  
  
Carolyn and Mark exchanged glances. "Meaning you slept through it again?" Mark asked severely.  
  
"Not all of it!" Khrys said defensively. "I stayed awake through Art. And lunch, and recess."  
  
Carolyn sighed. She knew her cousin was smart, and she could be doing very well, if she would apply herself. "Khryssi," she began wearily, "you know what the principal said. If your grades don't start improving, you'll have to go to summer school. Trust me, it's not fun."  
  
Khrystalia looked up, her eyes wide, a smile forming on her lips. "You mean to tell me that my perfect eldest cousin went to summer school?!?"  
  
Carolyn blushed. She liked to pretend she was flawless. Her aunts had always said she'd gotten her pride from her mother. She'd also inherited Prue's wild streak, when she was 17. Of course, it hadn't lasted long. A year later, when her aunts and uncle died, Carri had to become the responsible one, looking after her younger cousins. Because her Aunt Paige had been a social worker, Carolyn had been able to get custody of the others, but she still had to work hard to make sure they weren't put into foster homes.  
  
"Once." Carri said firmly. "I went to summer school once." Khrys giggled. "Oh, go study." Carolyn snapped.  
  
"It's Friday. I don't have homework." Khrys pointed out.  
  
"Go study anyway." Carolyn said.  
  
Khrys made a face, then looking imploringly at Mark.  
  
"Oh, come on, Carolyn. It's the weekend. Don't be such a hardass." he intervened.  
  
"Fine." she conceded. "But come Monday..." she began warningly.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Khrys sighed.  
  
Mark glanced at his watch and did a double take. "We'd better get home," he said, "Greg and the girls are probably wondering where we are."  
  
Carolyn gulped down the last of her coffee, and Mark took the mugs back to the kitchen, coming back with both of their jackets in hand. He handed one to Carolyn, and they pulled them on quickly, yelling good-bye to Daniel as they rushed out the door.  
  
After the three cousins were gone, a graying, kind-looking man came out from the back room. Daniel closed up the club, and then, in a swirl of bright, white lights, he disappeared.  
  
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A/N: Didja like it? Even if you didn't, please, review. Flame or no, just tell me something! BTW - I've written up to chapter 4, so the more reviews I get, the faster I'll update. 


	2. 

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A/N: critic - *I'd* name my kid Khrystalia, that's who. Or Cristalia, same thing just spelled differently. LOL. Thanks for the feedback!  
A/N2: Everyone else - please review. I've written up to chapter 6, and the more reviews I get, the sooner I'll update.  
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"Honey, I'm home!" Mark called as he, Carolyn, and Khrys walked into the huge Victorian house where they'd lived their whole lives. They could hear laughter coming from inside.  
  
"We're in the kitchen!" Julianne called.  
  
They hung their jackets on the coat rack, and as they headed toward the kitchen, a furry, dark blur darted past.  
  
"Starr!" Khrys called to the large, black cat they'd taken in after their mothers' cat, Kit, ran away.  
  
Khrys, Carolyn, and Mark followed their pet to the kitchen, where she jumped onto the counter next to where 20-year-old Greggory Turner was standing. "Hey, where were you?" he asked, ignoring the cat.  
  
"P3." Carolyn said, shooing Starr off the counter.  
  
"I'm starving." Mark said. "Whose turn is it to cook dinner?"  
  
"Julie's." Camille answered.  
  
Her twin glared at her. "Thanks for the reminder, sis."  
  
"Anytime." Camille replied sweetly.  
  
"OK, then, Julie, can you start cooking? I'm hungry, too. And Cammie? Can you come help me with the art project I've been working on?" Khrys, the peacekeeper of the family, interjected. She led Camille upstairs to her room.  
  
"So, do we want pasta tonight, or roast beef?" Julie asked her three remaining cousins.  
  
"Pasta," Greg said, "I think we all want something quick."  
  
Julie nodded and began pulling out the things she'd need for her meat sauce. She had inherited Piper's culinary talents, and, unlike her twin, she enjoyed being in the kitchen.  
  
Half an hour later, they were all seated around the dining room table, enjoying the usual dinnertime chatter. Toward the end of the meal, they heard a banging sound and went to investigate.  
  
They followed the noise up to the second floor, when Carolyn realized it was coming from the attic.  
  
"That's not possible." Greg argued. "No one's been up there since.." he stopped, but they all knew what he meant. No one had been up there since Piper, Phoebe, and Paige died. Even now, ten years later, it still hurt them to say it.  
  
"Carri's right," Julie said, "I mean, where else could it be coming from?"  
  
"Only one way to find out." Carolyn said. Cautiously, she started up the attic stairs, her younger cousins following behind.  
  
When they got to the top, the door was open. Tentatively, they peeked inside.  
  
"The window's open," Mark pointed out, "At least that explains the banging. The wind must've blown the door open somehow."  
  
"But how?" Cammie asked. "There's only a slight breeze out tonight."  
  
Carolyn didn't answer. Instead, she walked bravely into the attic.  
  
She blinked. Once her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she found a lamp and turned it on. Then, she looked around.  
  
At first she saw the usual things one might expect to find in an attic: toys, old eight-tracks, a dollhouse, even a couch and a rickety old bed. But then, her eyes settled on an old, dusty, leather-bound book that sat on a stand in the middle of the attic. She walked over to it, and curiously picked it up, blowingthe dust off the cover.  
  
"What did you find, Carri?" Khrys asked. Her cousins slowly entered the attic and came to stand around her.  
  
"The Book of Shadows." Carolyn read from the first page. She flipped through the book, surprised at what she saw. The book was full of pictures of monsters, and page after page of what looked like some kind of spells. She remembered that when she was a kid the adults in the house used to go up to the attic often. Did her aunts really believe in this stuff? Did her mother?  
  
Carolyn closed the book with a start. All six cousins looked up when a sudden wind filled the attic. 


	3. 

In an instant, the wind stopped.  
  
They all rubbed their eyes, gasping at what they saw. Standing in front of them was a ghost.  
  
"Blessed be," she said, taking in their shocked expressions.  
  
"You... You're not real." Mark said. "This is.. impossible. Some kind of joke."  
  
"Oh, it's no joke." the ghost assured him. "But don't worry, I'll cause you no harm."  
  
"Who are you?" Carolyn demanded.  
  
"I am Melinda Warren, your great-grandmother many times removed."  
  
Carolyn nodded, swallowing hard. She remembered her aunts telling her stories of their ancestor, Melinda Warren, the first of their family to come to America.  
  
"Why are you here?" Khrys asked, frightened and near tears.  
  
"Don't be scared, little one." Melinda said gently. "I'm here to alert you to your destiny. That book has been passed down from generation to generation, from me down to your mothers, and now, to you.  
  
"When I died, I predicted that there would be three sister witches descended from me, and that they would be the Charmed Ones, the most powerful witches in the world. They were your mothers, and they were the most powerful, in their own time. Even I couldn't have foreseen that you six wold follow, and be even greater than your mothers. You are the Enchanted Ones. In you lies the power to do great good. Use it well." With that, the ghost disappeared.  
  
The six looked at each other. They all had a million questions, but none of them could find the words to ask.  
  
"What do we do now?" Khrys asked fearfully.  
  
Carolyn took a deep breath. "I think... I think the answer's in here, somewhere." she pointed to the Book of Shadows.  
  
"This is rediculous." Greg muttered. "It's freakin' crazy."  
  
Camille put her hand on Greg's shoulder. "Greg, we don't understand it, either. But... if Mom and the Aunts had something to do with it, then it can't be bad, can it?"  
  
"Like Carri said before, there's only one way to find out." Mark said. He opened the book to the page about Melinda Warren, and read it aloud.  
  
"Well, that does go with everything Aunt Piper told me about her." Carolyn said.  
  
"You've got to be kidding me." Greg said. "You mean you actually believe this bullshit? Come on, Carri, you're supposed to be the smart one."  
  
"Well do you have any other explanation for what we just saw?" Carolyn asked, hurt.  
  
"Yeah," Gread returned. "I do. We're all dreaming.Or hallucinating. Or something. Whatever. This is.. I'm out of here." He turned, and left.  
  
Carolyn swore silently. She just knew her cousin was going to do something stupid, like get drunk or high or go off somewhere. He was always getting into trouble.  
  
"Should we go after him?" Julie asked quietly.  
  
"No," Carolyn said, trying not to look too worried, "If he wants to screw up, let him."  
  
"So where does that leave the rest of us?" Khrys asked.  
  
Carolyn just shrugged. Somehow, she had the feeling that she really didn't want to know.  
  
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A/N: Yeah, I know, this chapter was a bit corny. This is what happens when you start writing at 2 a.m. Must... get... coffee... 


	4. 

Carolyn sighed, leaning against the chest of her boyfriend, 29-year-old Shawn Miller. As hard as she tried, she couldn't make herself stop thinking about what had happened the night before.  
  
"Come on, Caro," he said, "talk to me. You've been acting strange all day."  
  
She smiled at him. She liked it when he called her Caro, which was odd considering she hated it coming from anyone else. "It's nothing," she said, "I just had this... bad dream, last night. That's all."  
  
'But was it just a dream?' she questioned herself silently. She buried her face in the pillow, trying to clear her mind.  
  
"Hey," he rubbed her back comfortingly. "it's okay. What was the dream about? Your mom?" he guessed. She had told him about dreams she'd been having since she was a kid, of her mom holding her when she was a baby, not long before Prue died.  
  
"Sort of." she said. According to Melinda Warren, it did involve Prue, in a way, so she wasn't completely lying.  
  
He kissed her. "I know, it's got to be rough, not really knowing who your parents were, other than their names. Maybe you should try to find your dad again."  
  
"Maybe," Carolyn said slowly, considering it. The only thing she had of her father was a name. Bane. She had no idea where he was, or if he even knew she existed, and since she had little to go on, the prospect of ever finding him seemed slim at best.  
  
"Will you be there, for the twins' party?" she asked, changing the subject.  
  
"Sure, if you want me to." he said.  
  
"Of course I want you to. What makes you think I wouldn't?" she asked, turnig to look at him.  
  
"Oh, I don't know." he said evasively. 'It's just, today you've been so... distant."  
  
"I've got a lot on my mind." she replied casually.  
  
"Care to share?"  
  
She smiled at his persistence. "Oh, just the usual. Work, planning the party. Also, I've got parent-teacher conferences at Khryssi's school coming up." 'And, yanno, the two-hundred-plus-year-old ghost showing up in my attic,' she added silently.  
  
"That's all?" he asked suspiciously.  
  
"Promise," she lied, holding up three fingers. "Scout's honor."  
  
"You were a Girl Scout?" he asked, laughing.  
  
She shrugged. "Not a very good one, I'm afraid."  
  
He leaned over kissed her. She relaxed into it, finally forgetting for the moment about the Book of Shadows and the visit from the ghost of her long-dead ancestor.  
  
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-  
  
Greg parked in front of the manor and ran inside. He went straight to his bedroom. He was exhausted. After he left last night, he'd driven around town, stopping at a few bars, staying out all night. All he wanted to do right now was sleep.  
  
"Greg?"  
  
He turned around to see Julie standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking at him, her face full of concern. Slowly, he walked back downstairs to meet her.  
  
"Hey, Julie. I'm sorry I ran off," he apologized.  
  
She nodded. "Then.. then it wasn't just a dream, was it?"  
  
He exhaled slowly. "I guess not."  
  
She shook her head to get her bangs out of her eyes. She looked like she was going to cry. "Shh," he said, hugging her. "It'll be okay, Jules."  
  
"I'm scared, Greg." she said, her voice shaking.  
  
"I know. I am, too. But Cammie was right. I know my mom, and your mom, and Aunt Paige and Aunt Prue wouldn't have been into anything bad. I mean, Uncle Darryl said they were the four best people he'd ever met." he said, trying to reassure himself as much as his little cousin.  
  
Julie nodded. She remembered what their Uncle Darryl had told them. He had been the sisters' best friend, he of all people would know, wouldn't he?  
  
"Thanks, Greg,' she said.  
  
"Are you sure you're okay now?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm just going to go find Cammie. I promised I'd talk to her about it." she said.  
  
"OK." he walked upstairs with her, and left her at the door of the room she shared with her sister.  
  
Julie went in, and was somewhat relieved to see Camille wasn't there. She didn't feel like talking about it anymore with anyone, not even her twin. Instead, she flopped down on her bed and went to sleep.  
  
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A/N: Please review! Come on, people, don't make me beg! 


	5. 

Dinner that night was quiet. Everyone was thinking the same thing, and none of them wanted to say it out loud.  
  
"We should probably go back up to the attic." Mark said after the meal was over.  
  
"I was afraid you were gonna say that." Khrystalia grumbled.  
  
"Hey, it's not that bad, Khrys," Carolyn said comfortingly. "I mean, look at it this way. You and I were both babies when our moms died, and Cammie and Julie were too young to remember Aunt Piper. This, whatever it is, it was obviously a big part of them. Maybe we'll get to know who they really were somehow."  
  
Carolyn's little speech seemed to calm everyone's fears, at least for the moment. Camille even looked eager to get up to the attic, though Julianne still looked a bit wary.  
  
They cleared the table and went upstairs, Julie clutching Starr for comfort. She put the cat down when they got inside the attic.  
  
Apprehensively, they began looking around. They started noticing some things that they hadn't last night, such as the candles in various sizes and colours, the glass vials, and an athame.  
  
"Mark, look!" Carolyn exclaimed. "Kit's collar." She held up the small, red cat collar, admiring the strange sybol ingraved on the tag. Suddenly, the tag started to glow. "Ohh..." Carri breathed. "Guys, you better come see this."  
  
Her cousins gathered around her, as the symbol began to change, as if being ingraved by some invisible hand. When it was finished, there was another identical, upside-down symbol on top of the first. For a while, they just stared at it, in shock. Camille took the collar from Carolyn.  
  
"Starr," she called, "come here, kitty." Starr lept obediently into Cammie's arms, and she put the collar around the cat's neck.  
  
"Cammie, do you really think that's a good idea?" Julianne asked nervously.  
  
"Relax, Julie. See? She's fine." Camille said.  
  
"Still, maybe we should get out of here." Julie said pleadingly.  
  
"No." Khrys said firmly. Everyone looked at her, surprised. "I... I want to know what all this has to do with my mom. Please. I want to know what she was like."   
  
The little girl was fighting back tears, trying to be strong. Greg went over and hugged her. "It's okay, Khryssi. We'll stay. We'll figure this out, I promise."  
  
"Greg's right, Khrys." Carolyn stepped in. "And I..." she paused. "I want to figure this thing out, too."  
  
"Here would probably be a good place to start." Mark said, gesturing to the Book of Shadows. "I only read a page or so last night, and this thing's frickin' huge."  
  
As he said that, the pages started turning.   
  
"How.. the hell...?" Camille's voice trailed off.  
  
"Holy shit, that was weird." was Greg's input.  
  
"Well, what does it say?" Khrys demanded impatiently.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Mark started reading. "In this night and in this hour, I call upon the anceint power."  
  
Greg peered over his shoulder, and saw the spell his cousin was reciting. "Hey, try substituting 'cousins six' for 'sisters three' and see what happens. Maybe it'll be cool, like fireworks or something." He suggested jokingly.  
  
Mark either missed the note of sarcasm in Greg's voice, or else he chose to ignore it. Without looking up, he continued reading. "Bring your powers to we cousins six. We want the power.... Give us the power."  
  
A bright, white light appeared above them. In an instant it was gone, but it left them with a strange, ominous feeling.  
  
"Mark!" Julie tried to scream, but it came out as a whisper. "What the hell did you do?"  
  
"Well how the hell was I supposed to know it would work?" he shot back.  
  
"Work how? I mean, come on. A light flashed for about a second. That's it. It's over, and I hardly think it's something to panic about." Greg scoffed.  
  
"Okay, but how do you that was the end of it? How do you know we didn't just unleash some kind of energy or power or something? What makes you so sure that the light we saw was all there is to it?" Cammie asked, her voice rising.  
  
"Greg's probably right." Carolyn said with a confidence she sure as hell didn't feel. She took a deep breath. 'They need you, Carri, this is no time to play chicken shit.' she scolded herself. "I don't feel any different, none of you look any different. It's over, there's nothing we can do about whatever just happened. Now, let's just go back to normal and forget we ever found the stupid thing."  
  
Her cousins nodded their heads in silent agreement. Khrys pouted a bit, but didn't protest this time as Carolyn led them out of the attic.  
  
"And speaking of normal," she said as they were coming downstairs, "I have to get to work. Stay out of the attic while I'm gone, okay? All of you." she added, looking at Khrys. She kissed her youngest cousin good-bye, and strolled calmly out the door as if nothing had happened.  
  
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-  
  
Carolyn got to P3 and hung out by the bar for a little while, forcing herself to concentrate on mixing drinks for the customers. When that proved useless as a distraction, and the bartender, Jillian, came back from her coffee break, Carolyn went into the back room to think.  
  
"Hey, what are you doing back here?" Daniel asked when she'd been back there a while.  
  
Carolyn jumped. She hadn't heard him come in. "Oh, I'm just thinking." she answered.  
  
He smiled. "Odd place to do that, what the noise from the club. Jillian and I can handle things here, and you look exhausted. Why don't you take the night off?"  
  
Carolyn shrugged. "I don't mind the noise. Truthfully, I'd rather stay here. There are some things I need to sort out, and I... I don't want to scare the kids."  
  
The old man nodded. He wanted to tell her he understood, but he knew she wouldn't believe him, and she wasn't ready to see him for what he really was just yet. Sighing heavily, he left her alone with her thoughts.  
  
She wasn't alone for very long. "Hey, Carri, do we have any more straws back there?" called Roger, a waiter.  
  
"Hold on, let me check." Carolyn called back. She made a mental note to order a replacement bulb for the one that had gone out in the stock room as she squinted, trying to tell which box was the one she needed. "Where are the damn straws?" she muttered. Suddenly, one of the boxes flew open, and a single straw came floating toward her. She stood there in shock, staring at it.  
  
"Carri, did you find them?" Roger's voice broke her out of her trance.  
  
"Yeah, Roge, there back here." She shoved the straw back into the open box, and brought the box to Roger.  
  
"Thanks, Care - Hey, Carolyn, where are you going?" he asked when she grabbed her coat and purse.  
  
"Tell Daniel I decided to take the night off after all, okay?" she told him. She didn't know why, but she felt that after what happened, she needed to go back to the Book of Shadows, and no messing around with spells this time. She left the confused waiter with the box of straws and dashed out.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
A/N: Sorry about the long-time-no-update. I really shouldn't start fics during the school year, I know I'm not going to finish them what with all the projects and homework and such, but anyhoo, I'm going to try finishing all my fics over the summer. The ones with the most reviews get the most attention, so yeah. 


	6. 

-/Meanwhile\-  
  
After Carolyn left, Mark followed his younger sisters downstairs to their room to talk. He sat down at the foot of Julianne's bed. She and Camille sat across from him, leaning against Cammie's bed.  
  
Julie shivered. When they were in the attic, it had gotten dark outside. She hadn't noticed it until they went downstairs, but now it was starting to creep her out.  
  
"Mark?" she asked timidly. "Do you think this really does have something to do with Mom?"  
  
Mark sighed and crossed the room, so he was sitting between the twins. "I don't know." he answered carefully. He paused, then said, "I think it does."  
  
Just then, Starr streaked across the room. Julie and Cammie jumped; they hadn't known the cat was in the room. Starr jumped onto the bookshelf. She knocked some books off, and they started to fall on Julie, Mark, and Cammie. All three siblings put their hands up instinctively. They all let out a gasp when the books stopped falling.  
  
"OK, what the hell is that?" Camille asked, frightened.  
  
Mark stood up. He put his hands around the books, feeling for wires, or strings, or anything to explain why the books hadn't landed on them. "They're frozen in mid-air." he said finally.  
  
"We can see that." Cammie snapped, panicking.  
  
Julie, the most reticent of the siblings, moved closer to Mark. "Make it stop." she pleaded.  
  
"I don't know how." he told her.  
  
"So what do we do?" she asked, her voice just as agitated as her sister's.  
  
He sighed. "I think we need to go back to the Book of Shadows."  
  
Julianne looked from her brother to her sister and back. She really didn't want to start toying with that thing again, but she was too tired and scared to argue. She sensed that Cammie felt the same way. Warily, they followed their brother back to the attic.  
  
-/That Same Night\-  
  
Greg had stayed in the attic with Khrys for a while after their cousins had left. After a few minutes, they both needed a distraction, so he took her to a nearby park. He pushed her on the swing, and although they were both thinking about the spell Mark had read, neither one said anything.  
  
They were getting ready to go home when a strange man jumped them. He wasn't an ordinary theif or vandal. He disappeared from in front of Greg, and reappered behind Khrystalia. She screamed, and disappeared in a swirl of bright, white lights.  
  
Greg watched his cousin reappear an instant later. The man who jumped them looked just as shocked as Greg and Khrys were. He blinked out, leaving behind an athame. Greg picked it up. When he touched it, everything went black. Then, he had a vision. He saw his mother and his aunts Piper and Paige, whom he could barely remember. Then he saw his mother and Aunt Piper with another young woman, who he thought must have been his Aunt Prue. His mind was suddenly filled with images of the four of them fighting men like the one who'd dropped this athame, as well as creatures he'd only seen in horror movies. He dropped the athame, shocked.  
  
"Greg?" Krhys called out. Greg opened his eyes and saw that she was shaking. He picked her up and carried her to his car. "Where are we going?" she asked, her voice unsteady.  
  
"Home." he replied. "We need to go back to the Book of Shadows."  
  
"I thought you said that wasn't real. That magic wasn't real." she said.  
  
"Khrys, you disappeared in a swirl of light. I think that disproves my theory, don't you?" he asked. He didn't tell her about his vision. He didn't want her to get any more scared than she was already, moreover, her didn't want to scare himself. The short drive back to the manor was silent, each of them lost in thought, hoping tonight had just been a bad dream. 


	7. 

The six cousins stood around the attic, looking at each other. They'd just finished telling each other about how they'd gotten their respective powers. Greg and Khrys had gone last; she was shocked to find out about his vision. They all were, especially since it further confirmed that the Book had belonged to their parents, and that Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige had been witches.  
  
"So what do we do now?" Camillle asked. "How do we learn to control our powers? Do we even want to?"  
  
"I believe I could help you there." came an all-to-familiar voice. Daniel orbed into the center of the attic, shocking the six.  
  
"D-Daniel?" Carolyn stammered. "But... How? What...?"  
  
"It's okay." the old man reassured. "I'm here to help you. Protect you. I'm your whitelighter."  
  
"Whitelighter?" Khrys asked. "Is that, like, a guardian angel or something?"  
  
Daniel smiled. "In a way, yes, I'm like a guardian angel for witches and future whitelighters. I'm here to protect and guide you, as I have been your whole lives. I always knew what you'd become, The Enchanted Ones. It's why I took the job at P4, so I could watch you, and let you get to know me."  
  
"Daniel, what does all this mean?" Camille blurted out. "Please, just skip the pleasantries and tell us what the hell it is we're dealing with."  
  
Daniel nodded, and switched to a more straightforward approach. "I believe you already know about Melinda Warren, and about your mothers being the Charmed Ones. Melinda didn't really explain much, she was only here for a short time." He paused to think, then began again. "I guess I'd better start with your powers."  
  
He went and stood in front of Carolyn, adressing her specifically but still talking loud enough for the others to hear. "Carri, you've inherited Prue's power of telekinesis. You've inherited other things from her as well. You're strong like she was, you take care of the family. I know it's hard for you, not being able to remember what she was like. Just know that she's proud of you, okay?"  
  
Daniel walked over to Greg, and spoke to him the same way he had to Carolyn. "You have Phoebe's power of premonition. Yes, that was her and your aunts you saw in your first vision. And yes, her ears would always ring after she had one." he added, smiling. "You are also," he continued, "part demon. It's why you have the power in the first place. Halliwell magic runs through the women in the family; the men are just the carriers, but your demonic half must have somehow triggered the powers from your mother's side, too. You've always been the reckless one, the one with least regard for the rules. You can't let that part of you interfere with your magic."  
  
He moved on to Mark and the twins. "The three of you have all inherited Piper's power to freeze time. However, as your father was a whitelighter, you may also be able to orb, heal, or do any number of things. Don't forget that you're part whitelighter; that, too, is a big part of who you are. Mark, it set off your witchly powers just as Greg's demonic side did for him."  
  
At last he came to Khrystalia. "And you shouldn't forget it either, little one." She looked at him, puzzled. "Oh, no," he said, reading her expression. "Your father wasn't a whitelighter. He was a mortal, as is Carri's. Your mother's father was one of us, making you one-fourth whitelighter. Not as much as Mark and the twins, but still enough to affect your powers. You have telekinesis, too, only you may notice that your power works a bit different from Carolyn's."  
  
He stepped back, and addressed the family as a whole. "You'll need to learn how to control your powers quickly. I'm afraid I can't help you with that." He looked up, and his speech became hurried. "There are, however, other things I can help you with. Now that you have your powers, all sorts of evil will be after you. I understand two of you met a warlock tonight. I'll help you vanquish him, but there will be others. More warlocks, demons, and other evil are all over the city. They're led by The Source, the ultimate evil." He looked up again, and then his speech became even more rushed. "We're led by the Elders, the Powers That Be. Your mothers did their best in the fight against evil, and now you must, too." He looked up a thrid time, cursing under his breath. "I can't stay any longer. They're calling me. Just remember, don't be afraid of your powers, and most importantly, stay together!"  
  
With that, he was gone in another swirl of bright, white light.  
  
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A/N: I promise, after this, no more writing at 3 in the morning.   
  
Tell me what you think of the story concept, or the characters. Carolyn and Khrys are my personal favourites. And what do you guys think of Daniel? Like him? Despise him? TELL ME!  
  
::yawns:: Excuse me while I go invade the nearest Starbucks. While I'm gone, please use the time to review. Come on, people, don't make me beg.... 


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